Appeal: For a Europe of Hope and Humanity

International outcry for Denkmark and Sweden to receive more refugees!

HRH Margrethe II

Queen of Denmark

HRH Carl XVI Gustaf

King of Sweden

Hon. Sir Lars Løkke Rasmussen

Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark

Hon. Sir Stefan LöfvénPrime Minister of the Kingdom of Sweden

Across Europe, national governments, aid organizations and tens of thousands of European citizens are committed to ensure a dignified reception to children, women, men who are fleeing untenable situations of war and violence in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, as in Libya and other African countries. The fundamental human rights of these people are threatened and in many cases their very life is at risk.

The lack of safe routes, forces them to travel thousands of kilometers risking their life and health, often being blackmailed by unscrupulous smugglers. They have reached the borders of the European Union, hoping in many cases to be able to finally reunite with other family members or their communities. For this reason, several hundreds of them, coming from Germany, are passing through the Danish border, largely decided to go to Sweden or Norway.

These people are in desperate and immediate need of humanitarian assistance. We ought to accept them with dignity and help them reach other families willing to receive them. Your countries have done much in the distant and recent past to ensure the full enjoyment of the right of asylum to those in need. For us signatories, the memorable act of kindness of the Danish civic society, to harbour 8000 Jewish Danish people by sending them to Sweden during the darkest times of European history, sets an ultimate example of solidarity.

We ask You today to follow the example of the courageous civic society of Europe, that has proved itself willing to support these people through their journey to safety. We ask You today to hear the voices of Europe that say, "welcome". We ask You to bear in Mind, that after the atrocities of WWII the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a founding stone for the Europe, Europeans aim to achieve.

We ask You today to share again extraordinary efforts with all the other European countries and to contribute in demonstrating that our Continent is a place where basic human rights are guaranteed for all in freedom and democracy.

We ask You to open Your doors to these children, women, men seeking protection and asylum, to guarantee freedom of movement and the necessary assistance to all refugees who are presenting themselves to Your borders, and to make sure no police abuse occurs against them.

The experience of Greece demonstrates the importance of building a pan European movement based on values of solidarity and deep democracy. Thank you for doing so much to organise this . Hilary Wainwright| Red Pepper magazine |

"This is sheer unbridled sadism. The Greek people are being punished for the failure of the neo-liberal consensus to avert the hideous and increasing forms of inequality which were always inscribed within its mandate. Nothing can explain why the most powerful countries of Europe should want to continue to impose on Greece policies which have brought it to the brink of collapse, other than the desire to precipitate a true collapse which they will then take as the proof that only their vicious system could have saved it - a self-defeating argument and a blatant lie. We can only speculate what unconscious links there must be between the forgiving of Germany's post-war debt, of which it remains the beneficiary to this day and without which it would not be in a position to dictate its terms, and its refusal to countenance any such forgiveness, let alone the paying of war reparations, to Greece. No logic can explain it. We have entered the realm of the cruellest social fantasy. The irony is that the whole of Europe will now suffer. But our hearts go out to the Greek people who will suffer - who are already suffering - most."

Jacqueline Rose, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities.

Étienne Balibar :"The struggle of the Greek people is the struggle of all European democrats, of all those who believe in human progress . In the case of a potential defeat all European peoples would pay the price. In the case of a potential victory, as limited as it may be, all European peoples would benefit. That's why it is necessary for those French and European forces who have hope in the renewal of democracy to positively answer the calls of Syriza to build European solidarity around Greece and the Greek people. The perspective of a referendum urgently requires the reinforcement of this solidarity"

Slavoj Zizek: "The struggle that goes on is the struggle for theEuropean economic and political Leitkultur.The EU powers stand for the technocratic status quo which is keeping Europe ininertia for decades. In his NotesTowards a Definition of Culture, the great conservative T.S.Eliot remarkedthat there are moments when the only choice is the one between heresy andnon-belief, i.e., when the only way to keep a religion alive is to perform asectarian split from its main corpse. This is our position today with regard toEurope: only a new "heresy" (represented at this moment by Syriza) can savewhat is worth saving in European legacy: democracy, trust in people,egalitarian solidarity. The Europe that will win if Syriza is outmaneuvered isa "Europe with Asian values" (which, of course, has nothing to do with Asia,but all with the clear and present tendency of contemporary capitalism to suspenddemocracy). We from Western Europe like to look upon Greece as if we aredetached observers who follow with compassion and sympathy the plight of theimpoverished nation. Such a comfortable standpoint relies on a fateful illusion- what goes on in Greece these last weeks concerns all of us, it is the futureof Europe which is at stake. So when we read about Greece these days, we shouldalways bear in mind that, as the old saying goes, de te fabula narrator."

"The behavior of the Troika today is a disgrace. One can scarcely doubt that their goal is to make it clear that defiance to the northern banks and the Brussels bureaucracy will not be tolerated, and that thoughts of democracy and popular will must be abandoned. Other than power, there is no reason to continue with the shameful farce in which French and German banks profit from the suffering of the people of Greece."The debt should have been radically restructured long ago, or simply declared “odious” and cancelled. Today, Greeks are offered a miserable choice between two painful alternatives. One can only hope that their brave resistance to the brutal assault will encourage global solidarity that will save them and others from the harsh fate dictated by the masters."